May 2006

Cooler Master has proven once again they can make a quality product. Each of the rails was stable, and did not fluctuate much at all during testing. In addition to the solid power readings, the high efficiency and active PFC are two very desirable features which help to make this power supply a top rated component.

Enermax launched themselves firmly back into the enthusiast power supply market with the Liberty series power supplies and did an incredible job of designing a totally new power supply that included everything users wanted and even threw in a little extra innovation as icing on the cake. I am left with nothing but positive feelings about the Liberty 500W and would highly recommend it to anyone looking to build a new system with any of today's computer hardware components.

“The Steam distribution system has introduced some fantastic games since its introduction, including the very well-received Darwinia last year. Most recently, Ritual Entertainment has started releasing a series of first-person shooter episodes titled Sin Episodes. There are 9 episodes in total following an in-depth story of a security force commander John Blade. The game uses the Half-Life 2 engine on the back end but has been tweaked by the experts at Ritual to be an even better graphical system and add their own unique interactive environments. The first episode, Emergence, was released on May 9th and has provided some incredibly enticing gameplay so far. Instead of providing an entire Sin Episodes review (that wouldn’t be finished until quite some time anyway), I’ve decided to provide you a progressive report on each episode as it comes out.”

"Radeon X1300 Pro is the top graphics chip inside the latest low-end graphics chip family from ATI. We’ve got a 256 MB sample for this model from HIS and in this review we will be comparing its performance to other low-end graphic chips, especially Radeon X300 and GeForce 6200, and also with some mid-range chips (GeForce 6600 and GeForce 6600 GT) to see how is the performance of this HIS video card."

“Looking for a tiny little USB drive to carry your 'stuff' around with you? Are you one of those people that like stylish looking things as well? Well today for review I have a tiny USB drive that sort of looks like a pendant for a necklace, it could actually be used for one as it is so small. It is cool looking and very functional, it is also water proof, shock proof, dust proof and ESD proof! Curious? Well it is the ATP Petitio USB 2.0 Flash Drive.”

What makes DLP television technology so unique is that it uses a small digital micromirror device, or DMD, to tilt over 1.3 million tiny mirrors, each smaller than the width of a human hair. Each of these tiny mirrors is tilted either toward or away from the source of the light, thus producing the light and dark pixels that make up the display. DLP televisions are rear projection TVs, but they are not as large, as heavy or as bulky as the traditional rear projection televisions of years past.

"Back on the 15th of May, NVIDIA shipped 7300GT GPUs to the Asian Pacific region only. However, this time they managed to surprise us. The 7300GT is not based on G72 architecture like its brother, the 7300GS. The 7300GT is based on G73, like the 7600 series, but with eight pipelines. A Few weeks later, many manufacturers launched their products and showed some amazing reference benchmarks of the 7300GT. These made us sit up and take notice. Like other G73/G72/G71 members, it is based on the 90 nanometer process. The original 7300GT design also included DDR2 memory, with the core clocked at 350MHz. However, a few manufacturers replaced it with GDDR3 memory, boosting the core clock speed as well."

Just when I thought that Scythe was just about producing processor coolers and power supplies, James sends me a HDD silencer aimed at keeping those fast speeding high capacity hard drives at bay. The Quiet Drive is aimed at users that want to have extreme quiet computers, while keeping it cool. Does it work? Lets check it out.

Sunbeam Tech was founded in 2000. They specialize in computer accessories, and some hardware. Sunbeam is known for their case lights and cooling products, including the well known Tuniq Tower. Today we have the Sunbeam Silent Storm on the test bench. It features a clean office look and a big "Core fan" which improves air flow through your case.

“Thermaltake is a company that always seems to be coming to with a new product, or constantly improving on their existing products. Today for review I have a new entry into the PC case/chassis category from Thermaltake, it is the Aguila. It has style and is packed full of features like tool less installation for drives and PCI cards, as well as a dual locking system. The Aguila also lets you move your power and reset around to your liking, it has great ventilation and even can be used with the BTX form factor. Did I mention it looks really cool as well?”

"Want to know what heatsink AMD rely's on for its socket AM2 Athlon64 FX and Athlon64 X2 reference platforms? The AVC Z7U7414001 heatsink. While this cooler certainly lacks a catchy name, for an OEM heatsink it packs a big punch in a little package. The AVC Z7U7414001's thermally responsive fan enables the heatsink to automatically adjust its fan speed as ambient case temperature dictates

"The new PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1 Kilowatt power supply is easily the baddest power supply on the market. This power supply has the ability to deliver 1kW of power continuously, and has a peak rating of 1.1kW! The PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1 Kilowatt power supply has three +12V rails with the ability to deliver 66 Amps of continuous current (70A peak)."

"Vizo make many products that generally involve hard discs. One of their key ventures is their range of hard drive enclosures, and today I have one to review; the stylish Vizo Luxon HDD Enclosure… Lets see how it performs."

"TR2 is the entry-level power supply series from Thermatake, TR2-430W being the simplest power supply from Thermaltake. With a very aggressive pricing – less than USD 40 – TR2-430W (also known as W0070RU) is the perfect power supply for the users that want to replace their generic power supplies with a “true wattage” power supply without spending a lot of money. This model seems to have an outstanding price/benefit ratio. Let’s take a look on it."

“Targeted for the performance mainstream, the ECS C19-A SLI is a budget board that acts like a premium one. Let's see how it survives our Usability, Reliability and Stability evaluation.”

SilverStone has a good reputation for making high quality power supplies, and today the company's 600W modular Strider ST60F power supply is on the test bench. This is an SLI-certified PSU, so gamers will definitely want to check this one out.

The prices of LCD televisions have come down quite a bit as well, even as the technology they use has continued to improve. These days the least expensive, small screen LCD TVs can often be purchased for a couple hundred dollars, while the largest displays sell for several thousand dollars. There are even larger LCD displays on the market, as large as 65” and even more, that may sell for $10,000 or more. If price is no object it is possible to find an LCD TV for virtually any taste.

Do you have an old SATA Hard Drive kicking around that you could put to work? Well, come in and check out our review of Vantec's Nexstar 3 eSATA enclosure! It offers eSATA as well as USB 2.0 functionality. It's also kinda pretty.

“It's easy to see why many hardcore and professional gamers choose the Razer Copperhead Mouse. One of the most important aspects about any mouse is the overall comfort and feel of it in your hand. Considering there are all kinds of different hand sizes, designing a mouse is no small feat. This mouse is designed with the average size hand in mind and would be very comfortable for most people. It's also ambidextrous, so lefties have no reason to be left out ;)! It comes with 7 programmable buttons and a scroll wheel, and all are quiet and easy to operate. To top it all off, there are three LED color choices. This product has feel, features, and finesse to boot!”

" Patriot was established in 2000 as a PDP Systems spin-off – PDP Systems is one of the oldest memory manufacturers in the world and very active in the OEM business – is getting a lot of attention in the enthusiast market with the excellent cost/benefit ratio of their products. We’ve got their PDC2G3500LLK memory kit, which comes with two 216.5 MHz/DDR433 1 GB modules with 2-3-2-5 timings. The main feature of these modules is their very low latency for such a high capacity product. Let’s see how this kit performs on our tests."

So why would someone buy a Slingbox? Because it allows users to watch their television from anywhere which has two things- a broadband internet connection and some form of Windows. This could be a computer on the other side or the room from your television, a computer at your place of work, or your Windows Mobile cell phone while you are taking the bus to work. To put it simply, the Slingbox is able to get a television signal and transfer it to your home's network. From the network it can be sent to any local computer or sent out to remote computers through the internet.

“This board is perfectly positioned for the mainstream user that wants a positive out-of-the-box experience. Those users that want to build a new system, but don't want to mess with it after that initial install will certainly find the RD480 Neo2-FI board refreshing.”

“When gaming everything is important, your mouse, keyboard, and even your headset. Almost every company that makes audio headsets has a gaming line. Altec Lansing is no different they have quite a few gaming headsets. Today we will be taking a look at the AHS615 gaming headset that features SRS 3-D audio, an award winning technology that creates a spatial experience that envelopes the listener. This headset also features a different ear cup design that I have never seen in any other headset, so let's take a look...”

Our friends at Aerocool were super cool to us today by sending us a nice box of goodies. Four of the items in the box all pretty much had some type to relationship with each other, so we will review these all products together. The two products that will catch the eye of most you would be the PowerWatch and the PowerPanel. The two are full solutions for digital flash readers and temp monitoring. The two other products are the 5v and 12v PowerUSB, which provide power to various electrical devices through the USB ports of the fore mentioned devices.

Data transfer rate is crucial to how well your computer performs for you. Apart from the connection types above, the performance of your hard drive depends on its spin rate, measured in RPM. Higher RPM generally means faster data transfer rate. The lowest spin speed that is acceptable in computing today is 5400 RPM. The common standard at present is 7200 RPM. But higher speeds are available in SCSI drives, and it is one area of computer system technology that is constantly being developed.

The repositioning of the drive racks and power supply make for a more compact design with minimal sacrifice to work room inside. The included case fans and three to four pin power adapters were nice touches that only help add that much more value to the PC-V800. Function aside for a moment, the PC-V800 is a very stylish case that will attract many buyers on that aspect alone. Add all the features and workmanship and the Lian Li PC-V800 is a winner.

"The NT06 can be considered a hybrid heatsink which combines the cooling properties of both aluminum and copper. The top portion consists of a series of bonded aluminum fins that are encased in a black metal fan shroud. The fan shroud has 4 pre-drilled holes in order to accommodate the FM122 cooling fan."

The ECS C19-A motherboard is great motherboard for those looking to build a new system without spending too much money. The performance compared to the 975X is slim, both Intel and nVidia flip flop between first place. What nVidia has accomplished with ECS and all other SLI XE motherboards is an opportunity for people to explore the potentials of a budget oriented high powered SLI machine.

We are working our way through the history of microprocessors so we can understand what the latest new features are, what gives a performance boost, and what is just marketing hype. The pipeline is a fundamental feature of microprocessors and is the enabler for several other very important speed-up schemes. Let’s see how pipelines work.

Ultra Products introduced the MicroFly (small form factor) case just a short time ago and not too long after that a small design flaw was found. If you are using a 6 inch deep power supply, the X2 and 600W offered by Ultra, two small tabs are in the way. These issues have been correct by Ultra Products, unfortunately a few cases did get shipped out. The fix for this is super easy and takes very little time to complete and I will show you how I corrected this issue

“A few reviews ago I reviewed the b-Cool fan from Blue Gears; today I have their newest edition the b-Ice. It isn't quite as exciting as the b-Cool with the built-in LCD temperature display, but the b-ice is exciting in its own right. With it's chrome finish and LEDs that reflect off of the chrome while spinning it does make for a nice presentation and is an attention getter. Read on to learn more...”

The Buffalo RUF2-S 4GB unit is FAST FAST FAST. Faster by far than anything else we have or have had in the shop. Four gigs of storage will be a big draw to many with the ability to store and carry large blocks of media. Four gigs is even large enough to carry an episode of LOST. The Buffalo's size and feel was compact and balanced. The snug snap fit cap that can be secured on the opposite end during use also is a huge plus. As we said already, this cap is not one that is going to fall off after six months of use.

Hardwareoverclock Austria has posted a new review about the Zalman VF-900cu vga cooler. We have tested on a X1800XT in a comparison between VF700, AC Accelero and the boxed cooler. The most importend themes are handling, temperatures, cooling performance and low noise.

“The ThermoHAWK 200 Infrared Thermometer is quite the gadget. Actually, it's more than just gadget since it's very useful. Let's face it, temperature is something all of us can relate to. No matter if you are doing research for a paper on water temperature or need to know how hot your computer memory is, this device will tell you within a second…”

After looking at Connect3D's X1800GTO, it's HIS' turn with their new X1800GTO Turbo. This card features HIS' brand new IceQ3 cooling solution and comes overclocked right out of the box. Being a part of HIS' Turbo line this card has received a default overclocked speed of 520MHz core with the memory speed remaining the same. Why the amount of 520MHz was chosen is unknown but it seems like a small enough jump to be a pretty safe overclock without straining the card too much. Plus with the heavy duty IceQ3 cooler, overheating the card is hardly a worry.

There seems to have been a lot of speculation over the name ' Tritium' and its association with NVIDIA's spanking new nForce5 core logic... Here today, HEXUS can reveal that ' Tritium ' was the working project codename for Foxconn Technology's development of NVIDIA's nForce 590 SLi reference mainboard, the Foxconn C51XEM2AA.

How well do the results of Foxconn's 'Project Tritium' fare up against NVIDIA's nForce4, ATI's RADEON XPRESS 3200 and also ATI's Sturgeon reference mainboard for AM2 processors?

"Well here we are again, the third competition to grace the forums of XSReviews. This time however the competition is going to be a different. Instead of simply signing up the forums like normal, this time we want you to post in this thread and tell us just why you love XSR so much! The winner will be the one who comes up with the most creative answer. Good luck."

"Spire is no stranger when it comes to cooling solutions and definitely has the knowledge to create and supply decent cooling products. We're taking a close look at one of their new creations, the VertiCool II CPU heatpipe cooler. The Spire VertiCool II CPU cooler is specifically designed for high performance applications and is designed for both the AMD and Intel processors. It uses vertical dual heatpipes to transport heat away from the CPU. The concept of heatpipes has become quite interesting for any cooling application. Spire has adopted this technology to build a new range of high performance CPU coolers, and the VertiCool II cooler fits perfectly into that picture."

What’s that? I’m sorry, you’ll have to speak up. You want me back? You’ll do anything, you say? Well, Tomb Raider, I’m a bit skeptical. You burned me bad. Plot holes, camera issues, a sad lack of tombs—I have not forgotten what you did. I am a fair man, though, and I’ll give you one more chance.

Tomb Raider has a new subtitle, a new developer, and a brand new console to play on, along wit the old favorites. Lara’s adventuring reaches new heights in acrobatic gameplay and graphics, but while generally fun, her latest outing is no Legend.

“Lamptron, ever hear of them? Me neither, but they requested we review their products and they sent me a lot of them. So, sit down and relax as I show you a bunch of cool products from Lamptron. These products include some cool vibration dampening things along with some interested fan grills. If you are interested in possibly making your PC a bit quieter then you may want to keep reading, this stuff would be great for an HTPC or just your regular computer.”

"There are many people that spend most of their days working in front of several computers – at home, at work, at school, basically everywhere they go. Without a laptop, these people are forced to migrate between each of the computers they work on during the day, and start wandering about in each system, wasting time. Now, imagine if you will, a world where each and every computer that you work on, has your favorite software, your desktop, your documents and even your web bookmarks will be already installed, just waiting for you to use it. Sounds nice, doesn't it?

"Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO memory kit uses two 1 GB CMX1024-3500LLPRO memory modules (219 MHz/DDR438, 2-3-2-6 timings) and is optimized to be used on ASUS A8N32-SLI motherboards series. CMX1024-3500LLPRO modules were the first to use CAS 2 latency, which is considered very aggressive in high-capacity modules (1 GB) with a 219 MHz clock. Let’s see how this kit goes on our review."

Looking for a mainstream video card at an extremely affordable price? We evaluate the Sapphire Radeon X1600 PRO graphics card against the competition testing real-world gameplay with five popular game titles.

"Corsair and nVIDIA have been working together to create a new memory standard dubbed EPP which stands for "Enhanced Performance Profiles". When used in a compatible motherboard, EPP helps the system automatically overclock the memory and tighten up timings to improve performance. Corsair has just released a set of its DDR2-800 memory that is perfect for Socket AM2 Athlon64 processors. Fast memory modules with low latencies, its new Twin2X2048-6400C4 memory is exactly what the doctor ordered. When running in dual channel mode, the Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4 provides 12.8GB/s worth of memory bandwidth which happens to be exactly what the dual core Socket AM2 Athlon64 X2/FX processors need."

If SYSmark's extent of multitasking seems a little overboard than what you would normally handle, then how about Quake 4? No multitasking is involved there and yet it gained notably as well. So there are cases where DDR2 memory adoption did make a difference, but by large and far, it made little impact. So why then did AMD make the leap to change its entire desktop processor infrastructure to a whole new socket that required massive market migration for adoption? As explained in our AM2 processor review, market forces have driven AMD to make the switch and it couldn't have happened at any better time than now.

“Identity theft, fraud, viruses, phishing and much more, they are all things that have become an unwanted part of our life on the internet. There are many things that you can do to protect yourself, firewalls, spam filters, anti-virus software and much more. I myself run Anti-Virus, SpyBot, and two firewalls on my computer and one built into my router all the time, and I run programs like AdAware on a regular basis to make sure I am protected from all the bad things out there roaming cyberspace these days. One problem is I have all that security but I can't take it with me, so what do I do when I need to check my email on someone else's computer or a public computer? I really don't want to leave traces on any computer but my own so what do I do? Well a few days ago I received a little gold gift box in the mail, the box contained the Stealth Surfer II USB drive, I believe it will answer my questions regarding privacy concerns and possibly yours as well, interested?”

Microsoft has come up with a great offering in the Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 Keyboard and Mouse set. With Geeks.com offering this combination at the bargain price of $56.99, anyone looking for a wireless desktop set up should give this one some serious consideration. Performance of both the mouse and keyboard were better than I had hoped for, and both maintained a strong signal no matter where in the room I used them from. The Wireless Laser 6000 mouse has also put to rest all of my apprehension over wireless mice in fast paced FPS video games.

"It is obvious from our testing that the memory controller on AMD's AM2 processors is critical in system performance when it comes to a number of applications. For this article we were trying to get the highest gaming scores and our efforts proved to be very successful. Starting out with PC2-5400 memory running CL4 timings our base score was 134.0 fps. After moving up to PC2-6400 memory with CL3 timings and increasing our memory capacity from 2GB to 4GB the score increased to 159.1 fps -- a 25.1 fps increase or 18.7%."

"Water cooling has come quite far. But it hasn't been a general consumer sort of thing till now. The Corsair Nautilus 500 is just what you need."

"I think the results of the testing really speak for themselves. AMD has gone the extra mile to provide the consumer with a quality HSF that is compact, quiet and cools damn well. It's refreshing to find a bundled cooler that can stand up to some modest overclocking, and do it pretty quietly."

The Cooler Express SLI Triple Evaporator Cooling Unit can cool your rig's CPU and its SLI or Crossfire dual video card setup. If you wish for the ultimate overclocking potential, this system is for you. No other cooling system on the market allows you to run your 3 processors at higher speeds. Combine this unit with a top-end water cooling kit for your chipset and hard drives and you'll be able to run your computer far faster than it was ever intended.

This unit is designed for advanced users and installation of it should not be attempted by novices. The unit will keep your computer's processors at temperatures well below freezing so it needs to be installed carefully to avoid condensation that could short-circuit your computer. This extreme cooling system is designed for record breaking, it is not intended as a general purpose computer cooling system.

"In the beginning I was planning to hinge the panels from the top and have them open like gull-wing doors on an expensive sports car. This would also require lots of open space on the desk to complete the upward swing. I had thought of using pistons, but could not find ones small enough, but at the same time strong. The panels stay in a closed position via magnetic strips, vinyl tape-like with adhesive backing."

Super Talent has come up with a great little device that does much more than just play MP3s. Even though the voice recording feature was of questionable quality, it did work well enough to be useful. The FM radio worked well as did the photo album function... One aspect of the Super Talent MEGA Screen Player can be seen as both a positive and a negative, depending on who you ask. The device does not support DRM, so you can not use subscription based music or otherwise protected files from places such as iTunes and Napster.

Remember Thermaltake Armor review? Forget that for the time being -- it's heavy, big and you don't necessarily like it because of it. The case I have with me is something that might be of interest: lightweight, aluminum, same Armor design sporting most of its features. Should I continue? Well, read on...

"MSI have a great board on their hands with the K8N Diamond Plus. There is a plethora of features and peripherals included onboard, and coupled with the extensive extras included, you should be very happy with the package overall. This of course comes hand in hand with a high price, but our thoughts are that is is a fair one."

"Well, there is no doubt left in my mind that DFI has definately done a great job and thought things through in creating the RS482 Infinity. With features like onboard DVI-D, TV and HDTV output, full 8 channel analog and digital audio inputs and outputs, PCI-Express graphics, four DIMM slots, and completely passive cooling, this board is obviously meant to satisfy the enthusiast media folks; and I think it definately succeeds. The DFI RS482 Infinity also comes with a nice little bundle to take advantage of all the video outputs and an instruction manual big enough to house an explanation of every setting, jumper, header, and BIOS setting available."

"The VF700-Cu LED from Zalman has performed very well for me this past week and I can highly recommend it. With great looks and excellent performance, this cooler would be an asset to most any compatible graphics board out there. Installation was a snap thanks to Zalman’s online installation guides and compatibility charts, and the noise-to-cooling ratio is very good."

The RoadMate 760 features turn-by-turn guidance with SayWhere text-to-speech technology that tells you the upcoming street name as well as distance to the turn. Also TrueView 3D visually indicates your next turn so you can confirm the direction at a glance. If you're stuck in a freeway traffic jam for more than couple of minutes, SmartDetour will automatically calculate a detour and ask you if you’d like to route around the congestion. You can turn the feature on and off, or personalize the settings for the maximum distance you’d like to detour. You may also choose to Detour anytime by touching the enter button while you are in an active route, even on city streets and backroads, to route around road work, closed roads, flooded streets or stopped traffic.